This is how Putin's Russia has been supporting the anti-Spanish black legend

It is very common to hear some Spanish conservatives stating that Spain has nothing against the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin.

Russia's support for separatism in Spain and the support of Spanish separatists for Russia
Ten facts right-wing people who sympathize with Vladimir Putin seem to ignore

The anti-Spanish discourse of the Kremlin to capture the extreme left

Statements like these are often ignored, ignored or even denied Russian support for separatism in Spain, in order to destabilize our country. There are other things that these people tend to ignore, such as the support of the Putin regime for the extreme left in the West and, also, the support of the official media of the Kremlin and the Putin himself to the anti-Spanish black legend, a legend that Putin's Spanish supporters present as something exclusively from Anglo-Saxon sources.

Putin and the Kremlin media have used this anti-Spanish propaganda to curry favor with the extreme left in Latin America, which is the ideological sector targeted by the bulk of Russian propaganda in that part of the world. Let's see below some examples taken from the official Russian media, mainly Sputnik, promoting this black legend.

Sputnik praised the anti-Spanish position of the far-left in America

This promotion of the anti-Spanish black legend by Russia has been going on for years. On October 12, 2017, in an unsigned article, on the anniversary of the Discovery of America, Sputnik headlined: "Nothing to celebrate", a slogan that the Spanish extreme left has been repeating every year on that day . That same day, Sputnik published: "October 12: meeting of cultures or genocide?", on the occasion of an interview with left-wing activists in favor of the black legend. Sputnik generalized to entire countries the opinion of these two activists: "While in Spain the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America is still officially celebrated as a national holiday, for several Latin American countries it was the beginning of a genocide ".

On October 12, 2018, Sputnik linked its promotion of the anti-Spanish black legend with opposition to the United States, in an unsigned article titled "October 12, civilization or barbarism?", which began like this: "The four countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that offer the most resistance to the United States (Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela) are the ones that celebrate the resistance of the United States every October 12 indigenous people to Spanish colonization and not Columbus Day or Hispanicity Day."

The official Russian media attacked October 12

In April 2019, an article published by Sputnik accused Spain of "denial" about the conquest of America. The article supported the anti-Spanish speeches of Mexican President López Obrador and stated: "Asking the kingdom to recognize cruel colonialism would imply also questioning its celebration of October 12 as the Day of the Hispanidad, which is celebrated with a military spectacle."

On December 1, 2019, Sputnik headlined: "Was the colonization of America so bloody that it froze the Earth?" Following this sensational headline, the article claimed: "The colonization of the Americas in the late 15th century killed so many people that it disturbed Earth's climate and intensified the Little Ice Age." , appealing for this to a study by researchers from University College London.

Sputnik accused Spain of the "greatest genocide in history"

On October 9, 2020, in an unsigned article, Sputnik accused Spain of committing "the greatest genocide in the history of humanity", stating that it was "above the Jewish holocaust, the Armenian genocide and others perpetrated in recent centuries" (significantly, Sputnik omitted any reference to communist genocides , including those committed in Russia and against countries like Ukraine).

On October 12, 2020, Sputnik attacked Spain again accusing it of "one of the greatest ethnocides that humanity has experienced". The article was limited to consulting those historians and intellectuals who support the anti-Spanish black legend.

Sputnik's support for attacks on statues of Spanish conquistadors

On May 11, 2021, in another unsigned article, Sputnik praised the attacks on statues of Spanish conquistadors and evangelizers presenting them as "decolonization of the Americas". The article stated: "European conquerors and slavers have been demolished by protesters, in pursuit of giving new meaning to public spaces and rewriting official history". The Russian outlet claimed that the statues represent "despots, men whose legacy was built on racism, slavery, conquest, genocide and violence". And that while Russia continues to erect statues of mass criminals like Lenin and Stalin.

The "controversy" in a Russian forum because someone rejected the black legend

The support of Russia and its allies for the black legend has caused clashes with those who maintain that this historical hoax is exclusive to Anglo-Saxon sources. In October 2021, Russia organized a congress entitled "Russia and Ibero-America in the globalizing world: history and modernity". The event was held in Saint Petersburg with the support of the Cuban communist dictatorship. One of the attendees at this forum was the Spanish Carlos Uriarte Sánchez, professor of Law at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.This professor criticized the black anti-Spanish legend and attributed it to "Anglo-Saxon countries", which according to Sputnik caused "a controversy between other participants".

Putin himself fed the black legend in a speech

On October 1, 2022, while his troops massacred civilians in Ukraine, Putin accused the West of a "genocide of the peoples of Latin America". Sputnik supported the speech of the Russian dictator accusing Spain of "extermination or isolation of indigenous peoples" and "genocidal violence against indigenous communities".

It is significant to note that this promotion of the anti-Spanish black legend by Russia has been increasing in recent years, in parallel with Russia's support for European far-left parties, including the Spanish party We can, that opposed European sanctions for Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and that also have refused to send arms to Ukraine to help it defend itself against the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022. In other words, the Kremlin is dedicated to discrediting Spain and falsifying its story to win over the extreme left, which has spent decades supporting the black legend as part of its anti-Western discourse.